David Tebbutt

Microsoft is not my favourite company. Never has been. But you have to admire the way it manages to penetrate, then dominate, most of the markets it goes after.

It’s had failures, but its sheer persistence often wins out. Especially in the enterprise where the old You’ll Never Get Fired for Buying IBM wisdom could probably now read Microsoft instead.

Recent exceptions include mobile phones and search. Public search was a lost cause until Microsoft teamed with Yahoo to improve Bing. Internal search, for people and information, has been beefed up with the acquisition of FAST Search & Transfer. Because the Windows Mobile operating system is still languishing behind the Blackberry, iPhone and Symbian devices, Microsoft has started to target hardware.

Microsoft recently sprang a bunch of 2010 offerings on an unsuspecting world. Well, it announced them, anyway. We’re talking about the next iterations of SharePoint, Office, Exchange and so on. They have already been evaluated by selected organisations and now they’ve moved into public beta. This is an eminently sensible move by Microsoft, as evidenced by the enthusiasm for Windows 7, which went through a similar user validation process.

Users can access applications through their phones, browsers or Windows, and from office servers or through the cloud. Several versions are available but the look and feel of each is similar, subject to the device capabilities and licence purchased. You can even get a free “sawn-off” online version of some Office applications, supported by Microsoft ads to encourage upgrades. The idea is to let users choose the approach they prefer. Organisations can pick and mix applications as appropriate.

Microsoft has long argued that the future will consist of “software plus services” rather than the pure cloud approach of some newer market entrants. Sure, it’s self-serving, but just because something new comes along, we don’t have to dispense with the old.

So what does all this mean for the information professional? Well, it allows content creation and management at all levels from the informal blog and wiki through to the highly formal, which takes into account governance and retention requirements. It can make purchasing decisions easier if you are already a Microsoft shop and are getting frustrated by some of its clunkiness and inconsistency. The new offerings are more fluid and harmonious and acknowledge the existence of the non-Microsoft world.

Because SharePoint is at the heart of collaboration and content management, it’s important to know that the 2010 version runs on 64-bit versions of Windows. You need SharePoint 2007 SP2 to be able to upgrade. It also needs Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox 3, while Microsoft promises Safari support. Other conditions apply, so premigration effort is needed for a successful move.

While the new versions of Microsoft software promise all sorts of goodies, they will involve substantial upheaval. So while you probably have all manner of Microsoft expertise onsite or in your IT supplier, it is likely to be a big project that it will cost time and money.

It would be possible to implement another collaborative software suite – Jive or Lotus maybe – on top of or alongside your existing Microsoft setup. You’d have two different ways of working and you’d need some new skills, but you might be able to achieve similar results more cheaply. But the unspoken threat which dangles over you then is incompatibility. Most would opt for the easier life, often called “one backside to kick”.

Be dazzled, by all means, by Microsoft’s efforts. Then put on your Ray-Bans and carefully study the underlying reality.

David Tebbutt is a consultant

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